Kūkaku is a fireworks expert born on October 1st with a notoriously short temper and an obsession with building houses themed around ridiculous concepts. She's part of the Shiba clan, one of the Soul Society's former noble families, though she doesn't appear to be a shinigami herself—despite knowing some seriously advanced kidō and keeping a short sword on her back.
Her past is marked by tragedy. Her older brother Kaien was infected by a hollow, forcing Rukia Kuchiki to kill him to stop its spread. It's something that clearly shaped her life, though she's moved on to running her eccentric fireworks business in the living world.
When Ichigo and the crew needed to sneak into the Seireitei, Kūkaku stepped up as their unlikely ally. She built the Kakaku Cannon specifically to launch them over the barrier—her signature contribution to the arc. The anime depicts her wearing a prosthetic right arm, though the manga shows her with just a stump instead, which fans have noted as a continuity quirk.
During the Bount arc, she mentions being the same age as Kisuke Urahara, which caught a lot of people off guard given how differently they've aged.
Birthday: October 1
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
